LATEST COMMENTARY AND NEWS

An LA Times investigation detailing the plight of cannabis workers who are cheated, threatened with violence or sometimes die because of unsafe working conditions. The newspaper identified abuse allegations against nearly 200 cannabis farms or contractors — half of them licensed by the state— since legalization. It found 35 cannabis workers killed on the job in a five-year span, a death toll that has since risen to at least 37

Marijuana appears to significantly increase young men’s risk of developing schizophrenia, a new study suggests. Up to 30% of schizophrenia cases among men aged 21 to 30 are related to heavy and problematic use of marijuana, according to the findings.

California’s stubbornly persistent illegal cannabis industry isn’t just undercutting the legal market — it’s also behind some of the world’s most blatant water theft. In 2021, at the height of the cannabis water theft crisis, officials in one California County estimated an annual loss of as much as 4,000 acre-feet of water amid reports of supplies being hauled in or groundwater being illegally pumped from the basin. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, enough water to submerge an American football field 1 foot deep

For the last decade, cannabis growers having been talking up their water efficiency and fighting to be allowed to grow on every farm, slope, and hill in the county. But now that prices are low and taxpayer handouts are on offer, cannabis wants to be included with our water intensive crops and be paid to fallow.

The cannabis industry claims to have a right to Sonoma's water on the false premise that since it generates more revenues per acre than some of our crops, it's a more efficient user of water. However, in a world where our water rights are not - yet - based on highest ability to pay, this is an irrelevant and dangerous equivalence to be citing.